Wednesday, October 10, 2018

Google’s new Pixel Stand will let you charge your phone wirelessly while it stands in portrait or landscape mode. The company announced the product today at its annual fall hardware event in New York City. It’ll cost $79 and is available to preorder now. The Pixel 3 phone will be released on October 18th; it’s unclear whether the Stand will ship then, too. The dock is powered over USB-C, supports fast charging, and can charge any Qi-compatible device.

It automatically adjusts the phone’s UI and switches the phone into Do Not Disturb mode when it’s docked at night. Generally, it’s designed to be placed next to Pixel phone owners’ beds to serve as a do-it-all-device, providing weather, traffic, and calendar info, as well as a special alarm that mimics sunlight.

The portrait alignment is clearly intentional — multiple software features take advantage of it. Music that’s played through the phone also shows up as cover art on the phone’s lock screen. Everything is synced up through Google Assistant, so the voice assistant is easily accessible, too, with a “Hey Google” command.

Users can cycle through photos, essentially turning their device into a live photo frame, where the phone will display photos from their favorite Google Photos albums.